John Oliver cuts into police accountability by dicing up the 'few bad apples' metaphor

John Oliver tackles police accountability
(Image credit: Last Week Tonight)

"As you know, the police have been at the center of a great deal of controversy lately," John Oliver said on Sunday's Last Week Tonight. "It's been impossible to escape, from the Black Lives Matter to Colin Kaepernick's protest, to Mary J. Blige awkwardly singing a Springsteen song at Hillary Clinton." That was the setup for a discussion on police accountability, and why police and the rest of us sorely need more of it.

"The trust between police and the communities they serve is clearly a cornerstone of civilized society," Oliver said. That has been eroded by "a series of controversial police shootings," and while police "have a difficult, dangerous, challenging job," that's "all the more reason to ensure that it's done to the highest standard." Police and their unions blame most of the problems on a few "bad apples" — not institutional bias, or bad laws, or strong disincentives for prosecuting cops — and Oliver had some problems with that analogy, starting with a silly one: "Snow White wasn't afraid of apples before she took a bite out of that really bad one, but I'm telling you, the next time an old lady comes at her with a piece of fruit, Snow's going to get the f--k out of there."

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Peter Weber, The Week US

Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.